The invention relates to motor vehicle equipment of the type comprising:
a fascia of plastic material delimiting a deployment opening for an airbag covered with a facing when the airbag is in the uninflated state;
an airbag support made of plastic arranged against the back surface of the fascia, this support comprising a fixing flange which extends over at least part of the periphery of the deployment opening,
the support further comprising a plate for fixing the facing to the support, connected to the flange by a main hinge, the flange being fixed to the fascia and the fixing plate being fixed to the facing at least in the region adjacent to the main hinge.
The invention applies in particular to motor vehicle dashboards.
The prior art knows motor vehicle equipment of the aforementioned type, particularly dashboards.
These dashboards have the disadvantage that the material of the airbag module support needs to satisfy several contradictory conditions, namely:
it needs to be flexible in the region of the hinge;
it needs to be rigid in the region carrying the airbag module;
it needs to be compatible, from the fixing (bonding/welding) point of view with the material of which the dashboard fascia is made.
When one single plastic is being used for the airbag support, it is not possible to guarantee that the hinge will not break when the airbag is set off, particularly at low temperature.
It is an object of the invention to provide motor vehicle equipment, particularly a dashboard, which is easy to manufacture and which comprises a facing articulation that is reliable when the airbag is set off.
To this end, the subject of the invention is equipment of the aforementioned type, characterized in that a reinforcing net is arranged between the flange and the fascia, and between the plate and the facing, this net extending across the hinge region, and in that, on the one hand, the flange and the fascia and, on the other hand, the fixing plate and the facing, are fixed together through the meshes of the net.
According to some particular embodiments, the invention may have one or more of the following features:
the fascia and the facing are manufactured as a single piece, and the facing is delimited by a preferred line of breakage particularly formed in the back surface of the fascia;
the net has greater low-temperature flexibility than the hinge;
the net has a melting point higher than the melting point of the fascia and of the facing;
the net is made of metal;
the net is made of plastic, particularly of polypropylene, of polyethylene or polyamide;
the support is fixed to the fascia and to the facing by welding;
the net and the fixing plate extend over roughly the entire area of the facing and the fixing plate is fixed to the facing over roughly this entire area;
the distance between the locations of the welds is roughly equal to the mesh size of the net;
the fascia has positioning pegs, particularly formed integrally with it, which collaborate with the meshes of the net and with position recesses formed in the flange and in the fixing plate;
the support is manufactured as a single piece; and
the equipment constitutes at least part of a dashboard.
A further subject of the invention is an assembly comprising equipment as defined hereinabove and an airbag module, characterized in that the net has a free part fixed to the airbag support by a means of fixing the airbag module to this support.
A further subject of the invention is a method for manufacturing equipment as defined hereinabove, characterized in that it comprises the following steps:
the fascia, the facing and the support are manufactured, particularly by injection-molding of plastics;
the reinforcing net is placed on the facing and the region of the fascia corresponding to the flange; and
the flange is fixed to the fascia and the plate is fixed to the facing through the meshes of the net.
According to some particular embodiments, the method further comprises the following steps:
the fascia and the facing are placed in a welding device;
the flange is welded against the fascia and the plate is welded against the facing through the meshes of the net; and
the equipment is removed from the welding device; and
said welding is performed by vibration welding.